“Anchorman 2” Limps Forward, “Zoolander 2” Pulls Along Bloody Stumps

The general consensus last week was that Paramount was, if not completely insane, then certainly not mentally well for seemingly passing on Anchorman 2 after a disparaging twitter from director Adam McKay. The production company then continued to show its apparent distaste for popular comedy franchises when Ben Stiller tweeted: ““Ron Burgundy and Derek Zoolander looking to appear in sequels. Both men destitute, without means or intellect to fund their own comebacks.” Was Paramount drawing the line? Had the company decided outright to say no to comedies with big stars and, invariably, big budgets?

Not necessarily. According to a post on Deadline, Paramount is eager to make the sequels: to the tune of $40 million each. That may not be as easy a venture as it sounds for a comedy: while the original Anchorman was made on a budget of $25 million, years-gone-by have turned most of the male leads into rather gigantic stars (David Koechner is still a lesser known) who no doubt are expecting larger paychecks. Indeed, insiders say that talks between the studio and McKay have them battling over a budget difference of $30 million. Zoolander is a similar prospect, but Stiller may be willing to play a little more ball considering the original’s surprisingly weak box office draw (it was released just three weeks after 9/11).

I can’t really understand why Paramount wouldn’t want to shell out the dough for Anchorman 2: the movie has only gained notoriety since its release, and its original target audience hasn’t gotten all that mature since ’04. I can see this working out, though: the internet bluster since the whole thing began may be enough to convince Paramount, and the stars have all expressed interest in teaming back up for another shoot that was clearly as much fun as Anchorman.

Oh yeah, and Zoolander 2… meh.

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1 Comment

Isn't the average movie budgeted at more than $65 million now? If Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, and Steve Carell walked in and said they all wanted to do a movie together and had the budget worked out to be around $70 million, I can't imagine a studio not playing ball. Bizarre.